Video round-tripping in PowerPoint is like the movie inception, where we figure out everything is a dream, inside of a dream, that is possibly inside of another dream… this is creating content in PowerPoint, that is exported to video, and then that video become part of the PowerPoint content, or a slide with a video of PowerPoint content with other PowerPoint content. It is crazy stuff you can do with PowerPoint, and Troy, Sandy and Nolan have a great design studio conversation all about it!

New Old Stock aggregates and displays images from Flickr with most (if not all) images being under the Creative Commons License (author assumes). Author also creates photo packs that are for sale. The images are amazing, and sometimes exactly what is needed for a presentation! The downside is the search options, whicr are very limited (and frustrating).

You can download the image by clicking on it, and it will open the image in a lightbox the image can be saved with a right-click. Tip: the title of the image on the main page is a link to the original Flickr library where the image was posted.

There is a search option in the upper left which is helpful since there are no categories or any other organization. It’s not clear on how often a new image is posted.

Pexels features free, high quality images, all licensed under Creative Commons Zero (CC0). They say 3,000+ new images are added each month, and the image library exceeds 40,000. Images are sourced from their community of photographers and other sources such as Pixabay, Gratisography, Little Visuals and more.

Browse collection by what’s trending, or search something specific. Click on an image you wish to download, and Pexels will give you a variety of size options to choose from. You can resize directly within the site as well!

There is a lot of great content and the site credits all photographers, even providing an option to donate to photographers you use and like so they can continue to make content. Here is a sample of some of the images available:

StockSnap (originally reviewed March 23, 2018) is a royalty free stock photography site that is worth bookmarking for presentation design. All images on the website are FREE and do not require attribution, both great things for presentation designers to hear! Photographers choose to share their work with StockSnap and release them under Creative Commons, so they can be used for personal and commercial use. There is a variety of imagery, with categories from business to nature.

Select an image and all the vital information regarding the photo is available; photographer, dimensions, size and relevant tags.

When searching images, the site will advertise some images with watermarks. These, and “sponsored images,” are from outside websites that are not included in the free StockSnap library. If your project needs a good, free, image resource, this is a perfect option to have available.

What makes unsplash (originally reviewed June 21, 2017) different from other image sites is that it does not actually own the images, but it does host the images for download. Unsplash is a community with photographers submitting images, all of which must meet the Unsplash criteria (quality, licensing, file size, free). It was founded in 2013 and is based in Montreal, Canada.

On the quality side, one of the requirements is that photos are at least 3MB and 2048 by 1536 pixels in size – which is great for presentation use! The licensing is near perfect. This is just the first paragraph of the Unsplash License: “All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.”

I will not be giving up our subscription to Adobe Stock or Getty, but we have added Unsplash to our list of resources. Tip: After selecting a collection or doing a search, click the small grid layout icon to see images in a more friendly grid layout.

To download:

Search for an image

Click on the image

Use the save options in the upper right (or save to collection if you have signed up with a free membership) or the download icon if viewing as a thumbnail grid

Pixabay offers a curated collection of copyright free images and videos, which are safe to use for personal and commercial purposes with no attribution required. There are a variety of search filters, including file type (photos, vector graphics, illustrations, or videos), orientation, category, size and color.

To download an image, first click the image from the search results to go to that images download page. Click Free Download, select your preferred file specifications and click Download.

Verify you are not a robot and click Download again. If prompted, select the desired file location and click Save.

Here is a sample of some of the images downloaded, added to a PowerPoint slide and stylized:

Pickit (originally reviewed March 26, 2018) is another image resource site, but it is uniquely focused on providing images for PowerPoint presentations. The home page boldly says “Legally Cleared images for people at work. Make your work stand out with unlimited access to royalty free photos and clipart in PowerPoint.”
To go with the PowerPoint (and Word) focus, Pickit has a Microsoft Store add-in that provides quick and convenient access to a large library of royalty-free and legally cleared™ images without leaving PowerPoint.

Access the image library any time by clicking the PICKIT IMAGES button on PowerPoint HOME tab.

Open the Images action pane, search for any image, click INSERT, and the image is added to the current slide.

There is a free version that accesses the image library only from PowerPoint (no website access) and no HD resolution images. The process of searching and adding an image is very intuitive and easy. The selection of images is very good. There is also the option to subscribe (~$1.99/month), with removes all ads and also includes unlimited app and web access, along with high resolution images.

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! #58 – Women Owned Presentation Businesses.

After talking about studio projects and presentation industry news, Troy and Nolan head out the door while Sandra Johnson, Nancy Duarte, and Lori Chollar have an amazing time talking about being Women Owned Businesses in the design industry – a conversation not to miss!

Burst is another great resource when looking for high-resolution photos to download – for free. Burst is a Shopify offering and their description is “Browse thousands of beautiful copyright-free images. All our pictures are free to download for personal and commercial use, no attribution required.”

The site features several options when searching for images, the most common option being the search bar. You can also browse through collections or new pictures.

If you click on “View all collections” this page will appear with the groups clearly listed.

To download, hover over and image you want. Two download options will appear, select either High or Low-res. Low-res images are approximately 1,000 pixel .jpgs and the download is automatic. High-res images are up to 5,000 pixel .jpgs and do require an email address/log-in.

The site’s images are directly from its own image library. All photos are free to use for commercial use, attribution is not mandated (but asked for), and are under the Creative Commons CCO license. I also recommend reading the site FAQ (at the bottom of the site home page) as it offers a lot of information on how royalty free image use works, while explaining the Burst image use options.

Here is a sample of some of the images downloaded, added to a PowerPoint slide and stylized:

Troy @ TLC (thanks to Christie on the TLC Creative design team for researching and doing the initial write-up)

Canva is best known as an online graphic design tool for creating social media-print-presentation graphics through its thousands of preset layouts. All of those creative layouts use lots of images, and Canva is also a resource where you can download high-quality stock photos – for free.

To download image, you must sign up and create a profile.

Go FEATURES > PHOTOS (which will include both free and paid photos in searches), or go to this webpage which is a search for only the free images Canva offers.

Use the search bar to look for specific images by category.
Or, simply scroll to the bottom and click the next page/arrow.

Click on the desired image> Download this Photo> The download will start automatically (or if not logged in, it will redirect to the log in page).

Images are part of a curated collection, so while the images I found are very high quality, they are limited.

Here is a sample of some of the images downloaded, added to a PowerPoint slide and stylized: